Title: HysteriaAuthor: Megan MirandaEdition: hardcoverSeries: noneReleased Date: February 5th, 2013Publisher: Walker Childrens
Goodreads / Amazon Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.
But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others.
In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.
This was probably the debut novel that I was the most excited for. I was just obsessed with finding this book and getting it. Sadly, once I had a chance to start reading it, I put it down for a while and didn't pick it up for quite some time again.
Even though the first three chapters didn't interest me all that much, I decided to pick up the book again and give it a second chance. I just wanted to like it so much. I mean, come on! A girl who kills her boyfriend - I'd never heard of that before!
I loved the characters in this book. There was Mallory - impulsive, yet shy. She didn't like making a big scene, but she was always there behind the scenes. She's got a big heart, so she'll do anything for the people she love. She accepted the fact that she'd have to go to Melrose so her parents would have less worries, and she adventured off into who-knows-where to save her best friend. Mallory did those with fear, but pushed past her fear to become strong. I like that word for Mallory - strong. She kept holding on, trying to figure things out. The one thing that Mallory could have improved on would be her crying. Mallory is a mess, but I don't recall her crying at all. If you were in the situation Mallory was in, regardless of being strong, you would break down and cry.
Then there's Reid. Ooh. I liked him a LOT. Like, A LOT. He's not one of those boys in YA that's on top of the world, knows he's hot, or makes you swoon in every scene. No, Reid is different. He's known Mallory previously, so we didn't get to experience the starting of their relationship. Rather, they had to rekindle what they had started and try and make things work.
Usually, it's kind of cool to read a book and you have to figure out what happened. Hysteria tried to do that, but it failed doing so. Mallory doesn't remember the night that she killed Brian, so you don't know why he did it, how it happened, or how she reacted to it. Everything was just a blur to her. Megan Miranda tried to tease us by giving us little snippets of things that happened that night, but honestly it took way to long. We didn't find out what had happened until a lot later in the book. I feel there would have been more suspense if she remembered a few chapters earlier than she did. It would have made Mallory's fear a little more real.
Also, it seems like Mallory was wrapped up in two crazy groups. At Monroe there was a group of people that were okay with murder, had major psychological problems, and tied Mallory into their wrong-doings. Then back at home, there's still the fact that people are mad at Mallory for what she did and want their revenge. I'm still quite unsure as to how those two went together, if at all. I feel like there was a lot of crazy in this book. I think that's a bad thing...
I'd recommend this book to pretty much anyone. It's not one of my favorites, but it was pretty good. The big picture of the book was somewhat confusing, but once you picked it apart it started to get better!
